Combined hives – 2 weeks on

Posted by Jon on Jul 3, 2010 in Beekeeping, Hive management | 0 comments

I’ve been watching the hive entrance of the new hive I created by combining two poor colonies a couple of weeks ago and have been pleased with the amount of activity I’ve seen. One colony had no queen but was large in numbers and the other had had a healthy queen but very few workers so I hoped the combination would lead to a healthy colony.

Much as I don’t like disturbing our bees, it was time for an inspection to check that there was healthy brood so the new colony could prepare for the winter ahead. So I donned the bee suit and had a look….

(click to enlarge)

As you can see from the photos, the hive is very busy with a good number of nurse bees on the frames and lots of workers. The new comb is being drawn and the cells contain healthy brood at all stages so the queen is doing her job well. There are pollen stores and honey visible so the foragers have been out gathering.

I didn’t disturb them any more than necessary to check that the colony was healthy so didn’t see the queen, but all the signs were of a healthy booming hive. Time to pop the lid back on and leave them to get on with it!